World's Deepest Cave Explored Further

DiniZuli writes "Australian Alan Warild led a 25-strong team of cavers from Russia and Ukraine on a world-record 1830-metre descent into the Krubera-Voronia cave in Abkhazia, Georgia. Read about it here (sacrifice of goat might be required). Here's a nice map of the cave."

Got to be careful about those caves...

[Anonymous Coward]

... don't want to end up like this guy.
http://www.holyshiite.com/caver/ [holyshiite.com]

Re:no goat sacrifice needed

[Nos.]

If you do happen to get to the map, open the image in a new tab (window) as they have the size limited in the webpage. Actually, here's a link [politiken.dk]

Re:New Species

[ravydavygravy]

Check out the Movile Cave Project [geocities.com], a scientific project centering around a cave discovered by well drilling in Romania in 1986. The cave was significant because the life discovered in the water in the cave (which had no natural entrance and was so sealed off from the world) was based around a totally chemosynthetic ecosystem, where all energy came from chemicals produced and used by the creatures (no light involved - none available!). This small cave alone contained over 31 species that were new to science. It's pretty amazing what might be just under our feet...

Re:Why is it so cold?

[se2schul]

It's so cold because you get no sunlight to heat things up, yet you are so far from the centre of earth that the molten lava can't warm you either.

Longest Cave Penetration

[se2schul]

Interestingly enough, the longest cave penetration was made in a completely flooded cave using scuba (rebreathers). They are the EKPP http://www.ekpp.de/projects/doux02/index.html [www.ekpp.de].

Re:Got to be careful about those caves...

[gwizah]

Ok, actually it was from Cheddar Showcaves & Gorge in Somerset, England. It's a statue.

Re:Got to be careful about those caves...

[Allison Geode]

that was exactly what i had thought while reading that story. it has a lot of lovecraft's story-telling techniques: starting on an exploration (lovercraft's stories usually seem to involve someone looking for knowledge) and then, curiosity unleashing something a lot more dangerous than one is capable to cope with, physically and emotionally. it was an interesting read, and i sort of knew how it was going to end, but i don't feel disapointed.